But then again...

Montana is fully recovered from her treatment. Yay! The hardest part was keeping her calm. But since then, she's...

destroyed several toys, including a stuffed sheep

taken over the couch, and

become the proud owner of a new car! (Ok, so maybe it's Sarah's car, but she bought it for the dog.)

Week #2

Montana is bored out of her MIND. We're guilty of letting her romp in the snow last week. We're pretty sure she's never seen snow before since it hasn't snowed here for the past two winters. Strangely, Montana is eating about twice as much as she does when we exercise her. I've been giving her a "snack" of dry food in the evening to supplement her morning meal, but I'm holding back so she doesn't start to get fat.

Sadly, our bunny Milo died yesterday. Of course this doesn't have much to do with Montana except that she's confused and doesn't know why. We left to go shopping around noon and found him at around 4:00 when we came home. He was probably the cutest and most well behaved rabbit ever, and we will miss him.

Post Treatment: Day 5

Post treatment is going much better than we had expected! Montana is feeling better than ever. She has started cough occassionally, but nothing scary. Our only problem is keeping her calm. As the days go by, she's having a more difficult time with this, and she's taken to going nuts whenever we get home, get up, at bed time, etc. This will be a long 6 weeks for all of us...

Post Treatment: Day 2

It's been two days since Montana's second shot, and she is doing a-ok. We haven't heard her cough at all. I'm wondering when that part will come... Her back seems a little tender, but she's been rolling on it and scratching on the back of the couch.

She's back to her normal self and very bored. We've got to take her out on a leash even in the backyard to keep her from romping around. I think that the neighborhood squirrels have banded together to mock her by standing right outside the front window.

So far, so good!

Heartworm Treatment: Day 2

Montana successfully made it through the night without any complaints. She didn't move around any more than usually during the night. This morning, she was feeling good and ready to play. She was probably pretty disappointed when she discovered that instead of going on her usual walk, she was headed back to the vet.

Same drill as yesterday - another shot of Immiticide followed by monitoring for the day. She was more alert and active this afternoon when we came to pick her up. We went right out back again for her to do her business without any issues. She wasn't interested in eating any dinner, but she certainly enjoyed the Greenie I gave her.

Our vet has encouraged us to do the best we can to keep her calm for the next 6 weeks. He's confident that she'll pull through just fine because she's young and healthy. He was also sure to tell us that she came with the worms when we adopted her (I thought that was very nice of him to remind us of that), and that it's not our fault that she's infected.

We'll have her retested in 6 months to find out if the treatment worked. By that time, all the worms should be flushed out of her system and she should be back to normal.

Heartworm Treatment: Day 1

First, some background: Our border collie/lab mix, Montana, was diagnosed with heartworm last week. We went in for a heartworm test to close the 6 month "window" between her adoption and the present.

When we adopted Montana at the end of July, she tested negative for heartworm. Unfortunately, the test most commonly used detects only mature worms at 6 months and older. We started her on Heartguard as soon as we got her. The good news: it renders adult worms sterilize and kills worms less than 2-4 months old. The bad news: it doesn't kill adult worms.

We made the tough decision of treating her. At first, this seems like a no brainer, but it's a painful procedure, and with an antigen load as light as Montana's, the infestation may be harmless and clear up eventually with the aid of Heartguard (adult worms live about 5 years)... or it may not. We decided not to chance it.

Today, Montana went to the vet at about 8:30am. As usual, she was excited to see everyone there. I returned at 4:00pm to a slightly different dog. She was still wagging her tail, but she was most definitely hurting. That morning, she has been injected in the lower back muscle near her spine with Immiticide, a drug that kills adult heartworms. Not only did she undergo a painful injection, but she also had to have a section of her beautiful coat clipped down to make administering the drug easier.

She was able to get in and out of the car without any problems. We went right out into the backyard where she went to the bathroom without any problems. She also drank some water, ate a few biscuits and check in with the bunny. We headed upstairs, again without any problems, but Montana couldn't sit still once we got into the office. After about 20 minutes of moving around, she finally fell asleep on her back with one paw straight up in the air. She didn’t get up when Jarett got home (she usually greets him at the door, tail wagging), but she did raise her head when he came upstairs.

After dinner, we gave her a few more biscuits and some painkiller prescribed by the vet. She's been sleeping straight since then, but came upstairs with me again for bed time.

Tomorrow, we go back to the vet for shot #2. Once that's over, she'll need to be calm for 6 weeks until the worms clear out of her system. Is keeping a border collie calm for that length of time even possible? I guess we'll find out...